After a trademark application sails through the journey of examination, advertisement and opposition, it reaches the final and happy stage of registration. When the online status of a mark shows registered, it means, as the term suggests, the mark has obtained registration and the applicant becomes the legal owner/registrant of the said mark. A registration certificate mentioning the details of the trademark (including date of registration, registration number, Journal in which it was published) is also issued to the applicant. The details of the said trademark are entered in the Register of Trademarks maintained by the Trademark Office.

Usually when the online status of a mark is ‘registered,’ the online records also show the date on which the mark obtained registration along with the date on which the registration will expire and the mark has to be renewed. As per the Trademark Act, the registration of a mark remains valid for a period of ten years from the date of its application.

The registration of a trademark in the name of the applicant emphatically asserts the applicant’s ownership and title to the mark. This is quite important as a trademark is an asset like any other movable/immovable asset with value. It is also important, on another note as it enables the registrant to prevent and contest other marks which the former deems similar to his own. This does not imply that owners of non-registered marks cannot contest other marks; but it is easier for owners of registered marks to establish title to their mark through the existing registration and thereby prevent third parties from using similar marks. Enforcement becomes easier with such registration.

Once a mark gets registered, all the registrant of the mark is required to do is wait and get the registration renewed after ten years and meanwhile simply keep track of the said registration, for a trademark can also get cancelled/rectified post registration for various grounds like non-usage, non-distinctiveness etc. It is understandably not easy to keep track of a trademark for ten years and subsequently get it renewed as well, which is why the said task is usually entrusted to Intellectual Property firms.

The best part of registration of a trademark, apart from having come the long way, is that the trademark could be renewed forever, every ten years. The only thing of course is ‘remembering to renew it!’

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